Meanwhile, Father
Of Fallen Muslim War Hero Teaches Trump A Lesson About American Values. “Muslims are
American, Muslims are citizens, Muslims participate in the well-being of this
country as American citizens. We are proud American citizens. It’s the values
of this country that brought us here, not our religion. Trump’s position on
these issues does not represent those values… This country is not strong
because of its economic power, or military power. This country is strong
because of its values, and during this political season, we all need to keep
that in mind.”

But, one cannot but admit that
had it not been for people like Trump and Marie Le Pen, we may not have seen
stories like these about Muslims in the media:

A reasonable
person, after listening sympathetically, might conclude that Cruz, unlike
Trump, has designed his refugee policy out of prudence, not prejudice… [But]
Cruz
isn’t agonizing over the mechanics of vetting refugees. He’s exploiting
anti-Muslim anger and sucking up to the Christian right. And he’s doing it
while wearing his own disguise: principled leader.

That is, by clamoring for the
admission of more Christian refugees from Syria, while banning Muslims, even
though IS operatives could as easily mascaraed as Christians, Mr. Cruz is
presenting a bogus argument that is meant to hide his own prejudice as well as
his desire to cater to the Christian right in the country. As for the
persecution of Shia (the author here seems to be mixing Twelver Shia and Alawites)
by IS, and while Mr. Saletan’s reasons for mentioning them is meant to showcase
Mr. Cruz’s hypocrisy when it comes to persecuted minorities, we should bear in
mind that most of the killing and persecution that has been happening in Syria
over the last five years is carried out by Twelver Shia militias (manned mostly
by Lebanese, Iraqi, Afghani and Iranian mercenaries), and army units commanded
by Alawite generals and manned mostly by Alawite recruits.

So, in essence, Republican
debates feature, in effect, Donald Trump and a few Mini-Mes. However, this
sweeping rejection of GOP candidates does not include their grassroots
supporters, the
majority of whom are definitely NOT White Supremacists, and may not
understand the implications of what's happening in their name at this stage. Yes,
prejudice is often involved in their perceptions of things, but their prejudice
seems to be more a matter of ignorance, fear and a battered sense of identity
than ideological conviction – which is what distinguishes the stands of White
Supremacists.

As such, there is much that needs
to be done by way of education, and even more by way of addressing the underlying
socioeconomic issues that seem to be at play here. Development I the U.S.
continues to be uneven, and there are too many towns and communities where the living
standards of the people involved reek of underdevelopment.

But this is not all about domestic
policy. The way America has been conducting its foreign policy, perhaps since
the end of the Cold War, or at least since 9/11 is in question here. There is
enough blame to go around here, America’s current retreat is not the product of
the fuckups of one administration’s policies. The idea that Obama and his
apologists have been trying to peddle ever since the onset of the Arab Spring,
namely that retreat and non-involvement, or minimal involvement, make for smart
policy is ludicrous. The retreat has created power vacuums both abroad and
at home, a vacuum that was immediately filled by illiberal forces. Yes,
retreat abroad created a power vacuum at home, the perception of weakness that
Obama created had implications at home as well where he already had problems. He
gave the most fringe elements enough fodder to allow them to move closer to the
mainstream.

But this is not simply about
mismanaging the transition into an America with a smaller footprint, it’s about
the unilateral nature of the decision itself. An America with a smaller
footprint can be good for America and the world, but such a transition cannot
be accomplished with a unilateral American retreat, but through sharing of the
responsibility of global leadership with America’s liberal allies around the
world. Obama needed to make sure before any retreat that whatever vacuum that
will be left behind will be filled the right combination of global and regional
actors.

But America still has a chance to
undertake a course correction. And the process has to begin by pacifying Syria,
NOW, before the Russo-Iranians alliance grows larger and before it heats up
other fronts.

Here's where the Right and the Left
are failing: our challenge today is no longer about nation-building in that old
geographically confined sense, nor is it about a globalization that undermines
the peoples’ sense of belonging and identity. Rather, the challenge is about
nation-building going hand-in-hand with world-building, about finding ways to find
common grounds and institutions that can allow us to interact on an equal
footing as human beings, even as expressions of our common humanity remain
different. The idea of a nation standing apart from all others as a fortress entity
is no longer feasible. Each nation in this hyper-connected world of ours, no
matter how small, has interests that go far beyond its border. The COP21
agreement is one expression of that, competition over energy and food sources
and networks of global transport and distribution involved, the challenge of global
terrorism and certain emerging demographic realities are other such expressions.
The notion that no nation can be secure and free if others are not is no longer
an idealist assertion, but an observed and experiential reality with immediate
geopolitical implications that warrant our immediate attention.

The Three Miceketeers

In trying to manage this
complicated situation, it’s clear that we cannot rely on idiosyncratic figures
such as Vladimir Putin, Ali Khamenei and Bashar Al-Assad, And it’s equally
clear from what is happening in Syria, Iran, Afghanistan and Ukraine, that we
cannot let dictate the pace and nature of the current transition. The
resurgence of illiberalism is a fact, but it’s a triumph is neither inevitable,
nor a viable option. There is no such a thing as the right to oppress, not even
in the name of traditional beliefs and values, or some “holy” texts. Indeed, there
will always be powerful figures and forces aligned against the “liberal” vision
and the values enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and
while we cannot always afford to confront these forces especially by military
means, there are occasions when such confrontations cannot be avoided, and
should not be avoided, on ethical, humanitarian, as well as strategic grounds. The
case for such a confrontation cannot be clearer than it is in connection with
the Syrian conflict today. If Western powers fail to act to stop the bloodshed,
and the actions of Iran and Russia now, they will have to confront a bigger and
far more pervasive challenge tomorrow.

Unfortunately, this logic is
unlikely to be accepted now. Not when Obama and his coterie of
"realist" ideologues are leading the way. No. this lot will continue to
think of themselves as geniuses even as the world around them falls apart. They
will continue to congratulate themselves for “staying above the fray” and will fail
to see the impact of their stands and policies at home, where the fissures and
fractures separating communities, regions and classes continue to grow and
where old wounds, that have not fully healed, have been reopened, and new ones
have been inflicted. No. They won’t see that strife that is looming at home,
and will continue to believe in that myth that, somehow, America is immune, and
that the only security threat to be wary of is something that is clearly
“foreign” and “exotic.” But it is the familiar that we should fear.

Go ahead, patronize me!

About Ammar

Ammar Abdulhamid is a Syrian-American author and pro-democracy activist based in Silver Spring, Maryland. He is the founder of the Tharwa Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to democracy promotion. His personal website and entries from his older blogs can be accessed here.

The Delirica

The Delirica is a companion blog to the Daily Digest of Global Delirium meant to highlight certain DDGD items by publishing them as separate posts. Also, the Delirica republishes articles by Ammar that appeared on other sites since 2016. Older articles can be found on Ammar's internet archive: Ammar.World